The “Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme” is a Central Plan scheme meant for delivery of health services, nutrition and education to children in the age group of 0-6 years and expectant and lactating mothers. The implementation of the scheme in the State for the period 2001-06 suffered from several deficiencies such as inadequate planning, loss of central assistance due to low spending, non-operation of required number of Anganwadi Centres (AWCs), large scale vacancies in the posts of ICDS functionaries, lack of proper accommodation and basic amenities in AWCs. Besides, nutritional support could not be provided to all eligible beneficiaries due to inadequate budget provision. The prevalence of severe mal-nourishment among children persisted at around five per cent throughout the period during 2001-06 despite intervention through different packages of the scheme. Against the budget provision of Rs 607.03 crore for the period 2001-06 under the Central Plan, savings amounted to Rs 132.16 crore. Failure in utilising these GOI funds led to loss of central assistance of Rs 35.48 crore during the period. Out of the budget provision of Rs 337.23 crore for the Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) under State Plan during 2001-06, the savings amounted to Rs 90.57 crore. The annul savings ranged from one to 43 per cent. Against the requirement of 40297 AWCs, 37480 AWCs were sanctioned for the State. However, only 34201 AWCs were actually functioning and of these drinking water facilities were not available in 21847 AWCs (64 per cent) and toilet facilities were almost non-existent in any of the AWCs. Out of an annual average of 33.12 lakh beneficiaries required to be covered under the supplementary nutrition programme, the coverage ranged between 13.60 lakh and 29.06 lakh during 2001-06. The Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) of the State was 77 as of December 2004 which was much higher than the all India average of 58 and the percentage of severely malnourished children remained around five per cent throughout 2001-06. The State level Coordination Committee required for monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the scheme was not constituted. Two out of eight districts test checked did not have any District Level Co-ordination Committees to monitor the ICDS activities.